THE VOLVO...Ugly semi truck crawler hauler build thread

[ChestonScout]

Really havent had any time to be working on this pig. Got piles of work right now and I cant turn it down while its there. Money is helping get parts ordered tho.

I think I have just about everything I need for the stacks....ordered. Been waiting for weeks for my order from Big Rig Chrome Shop. Its getting to be Ballistic Fabish.

No pics but I got the seats all bolted down. 3 of the 4 bolts on each seat caught crossmembers on the bottom side of the cab..so for the 4th I just cut a piece of angle iron to go on the bottom. They need to be strong since the seatbelts are attached to the seats. Should be plenty strong.

Came home a couple hours early today and started dinkin with getting the stacks ready to put together.

So I got 2 10' sticks of 6" exhaust tube, 2 90 degree elbows, some mounts and bushings and some clamps. Also a muffler is on its way......more on that later

As its been well documented, Im not the best welder. My welds are strong, just not the best looking. Well Ive been pretty nervous about making the welds between the stack and elbow look presentable. Doing a butt joint on thin sheetmetal is going to be interesting. In fact I am considering subbing it out. But I came up with a idea today that may help me a bit. Both in the welding, and the alignment of the tube.

I got a 4' chunk of stainless 6" pipe that a local kid had for 20 bucks. Figured it might come in handy. Well....here is my idea. Nothing ground breaking but here ya go.

I cut some 2" long pieces of the stainless pipe off. Its the same diameter as the elbow.





So I cut a slit out



And slid it inside of the elbow.



I will drill a couple holes and rosette weld them in place. This will do 2 things for me. 1- help align the tube to the elbow, and 2- give me some backing for welding the pieces together. Maybe this weekend I will grow a pair and weld the pieces together. Maybe.

 

[ChestonScout]

Got a couple hours in today.

I really wish I would have looked at these pipes closely before I paid for them. They are pretty beat up. So I started the day marking all the bad spots with red paint. Figure I will put the worst of it against the cab. Depressing since I paid 15 bucks a foot. To late now



Then more depressing stuff. Butted the 6" OD elbows up to the 6" OD tube. But the elbows are smaller??? I put the calipers on both. Tube measures 6", elbows measure 5.88" Not enough to slip it inside the tube so I decided to put the gap towards the cab. Heres what it looks like



Welds arent great but they are there and I didnt burn thru anywhere. The second one turned out better. The stack is in better shape and I guess I was practiced up on welding it. No pics of it yet tho.



I was pretty depressed with as many issues as Im having but oh well. Started mocking up what its gonna look like.








I had been kicking around the idea of mounting the stacks to the cab. Only issue with this is the air ride cab. I was gonna make it all solid to the cab and then do a flex tube mounted right at the hinge point at the cab. The main reason I was gonna do the cab mount is I dont want a super tall headache rack. But after putting a tape measure on everything, I decided the headache rack mount will be the best option. Only problem with that is I havent bought metal for it yet. So Im kinda stuck til I get that built and in place. Hopefully I can find time to get some steel picked up this week.

 

[Chevycrew]

My truck has a floating upper mount where its connected to the cab. The bottom of the elbow is frame mounted. Ill get you pics tomorrow. If I forget just text to remind me.

 

[RogueJeepr]

Are ya gonna put a flapper on top ?
If that s what their called.

 

[GEEPAHOLIC]

Rain cap for cool factor !

 

[AaronPaige]

That's looking good makes me really want a big truck

 

[ChestonScout]

Are ya gonna put a flapper on top ?
If that s what their called.

Rain cap for cool factor !

I looked at rain caps. They do make them for 6" pipe. I got pretty excited and almost ordered them. Im just not sure if I want to listen to them clack around while the truck is idling. The thing makes enough noise as is. Im gonna put a petcock in the bottom if water does get in. But Im just thinking of coffee canning them while the truck is parked. We'll see

That's looking good makes me really want a big truck

Thanks! I think it will be fun.

 

[Unimog]

I used to put a can on the mog's stack when it had a straight-up exit. When my boys were younger, they got a kick out of catching the flying can. It's easiest to just drill a small hole at a low spot in each exhaust pipe and make sure it is coated with something so it doesn't rust out there. My semi has a weed burner exhaust, so no water issues.

 

[ChestonScout]

Work is still stupid busy.

But I lucked out today. I had to pick up some vinyl rail material and that store is right by Boman & Kemp. So I snagged to tube for the headache rack. And since 20' sticks of tube dont fit in my garage, I figured I may as well start cutting it up.






Thats as far as I got before a neighbor stopped by to chat.

Fairly interesting tho, he said his Dad saw my truck the other day and got pretty excited. He used to work for Volvo and the White company designing Semi trucks. He knows more about my truck than anyone. Told him he needs to get his Dad to stop by to chat. Kinda cool

 

[ChestonScout]

Got home a little early today so I put in a few hours on the dead rack.


I cant call it a headache rack because if this thing hits you its gonna do more than cause a headache!!

After getting the sides cut and tacked in, and making sure everything was square and flat....I put a few stitches on to hold everything, cut some slits in the flatbed and sat it in place to make sure it was gonna work.



My plan was to bolt it to the frame like a typical semi truck bang board. Most use massive ubolts to go around the frame. With it sitting there tho its gonna be to easy just to attach it to the bed, add a few supports and forget about it. I think it will be stronger than u bolting it down and it will save me a ton of time and money for the stupid big ubolts.

The only downside I can think of is the bed will have to be removed when I want to paint the cab. I dont have much interest in trying to take this bed off. Who knows how much it weighs. But after some pondering.....I will worry about it later.

Right now Im planning on just bolting in some filler plates on the dead rack instead of welding them in. A guy MIGHT be able to get the cab painted around the square tube. We will see.

So I muscled it back into the garage, Added 3 more tubes and welded it all up. Once I set it back on the bed, it wont be coming off again, so Im gonna get all of it painted that I can first. So I shot a coat of primer on it tonight.

Never mind my super messy garage.



Ill shoot another coat of primer on it tomorrow then some flat black saturday and hopefully get it installed. Then I can get back to the stack project

 

[RogueJeepr]

And then .... You'll need to make a cattle guard for the front bumper. I know, im not helping . My dad showed me pics of when he hit a deer at 75mph hauling acid (2 tankers and a pup). He didn't flinch, but it did a lot of damage.
The rig is looking great. Im sure a lot of people are jealous .

Your garage looks fairly clean compared to mine . I had a lot of projects going on, then I invaded the wifes. Yea, she didn't like that .

 

[GEEPAHOLIC]

X2 on the deer slayer bumper saved my bacon more than once

 

[Chevycrew]

I have a bunch of those stupid big u-bolts that I dont need. Maybe too big tho.

 

[ChestonScout]

Ill have to snag a pic of the front bumper. PO added a bunch of 2x3 tube behind it along with 1/2" plate holding it together. Probably wouldnt do much for deer protection since its to low but something has to be done.


Maybe a put a big ol jeep stinger on the front...hahaha



Steve....Those U bolts would most likely work for me. Just got to decide if thats what I want to do.



I was gonna work for 3 hours this morning and then come home to work on the truck.....ya, didnt get home til 9 pm. Work sure is getting in the way of building this thing

 

[ChestonScout]

Got the headache rack set into place and started to burn it in. Wind was blowin pretty good today so Ive got a couple places that need ground out and re welded. Then I will add bracing once Im 100% sure its where it needs to be.

I need to get the stacks mounted on the truck. They are taking a lot of room in my small garage so I decided to start mocking the mounts up.

I didnt snap many pics. It got dark on me quick. But here is the stack sitting closeish to where it needs to be.



I was wishing I would have just made the rack square instead of the angled corners. Woulda made stack mounting pretty easy. To late now tho. So some funky brackets were made.



Got the holes drilled for the isolators. Tell me that doesnt look like an owl??



Thats as far as I got today.


I apologize for the high number of updates with little work accomplished. Time is hard to come by right now. These little updates seem to keep me motivated to do what I can when I can. One of these days it will be usable

 

[hoosier]

Looking really good

 

[Bart]

Love seeing the updates. Never apologize. Great progress on the rig.

 

[ChestonScout]

Well....if no one is complaining,


Another TINY update today.

I got the top mount tacked into place and knocked out the bottom mounts as well.

The cab is closer to the headache rack at the bottom since I have a super futuristic aerodynamic cab so the mounts had to be different than the top



Wind was blowing again today so all I did was tack them into place. But with a couple good tacks the stack is now hanging on its own



I originally wanted the stacks to be a little farther away from the cab but with the way I made the headache rack and the resulting brackets this is where it goes. It will do.

Not a lot of room to play with anyway. But as you can see, the door for the sleeper still opens!



I have a plan to get the y pipe and 2 small mufflers in. Im planning on taking friday and saturday off this week. Really hoping I can get the exhaust about wrapped up besides paint or powder. Im guessing I will just paint them for now to save some cash.


Ive mentioned that the passenger side fuel tank is in the way of the stacks. The tank had at least 90 gallons of fuel in it. Ive been slowly draining it and burning it in my Ford. There is probably 20-30 gallon still in it so its just getting transfered to the other tank now. Need to get the tank off and out of the way for now.

The plan is to relocate the battery box and slide the tank forward to match the drivers side. Its either that or get a smaller tank. I like the idea of both sides matching I think. The battery will probably get moved to side of the frame rail underneath the front of the flatbed. There is a lot of open space there.

 

[Bart]

Looking good Cheston. Like the nice tight fit.

 

[ChestonScout]

Thanks Bart! Having them tight there is growing on me.

So all my pics on Photobucket today decided to go bye bye. I guess to many people are looking at the build and I exceeded the free bandwidth.
I really dont like Photobucket. But I have so much crap on there it would take a long time to move to somewhere better.

SO.....the bastids got my money now.


2 days in a row with a update??? Sky must be falling.

My buddy VIZ sent me a box of freebies! Few clamps and a Mack dog. HAHAHA He has an obsession with Mack I think.



My mufflers showed up today as well so I figured I might as well hack on them and weld them up.

My plan was to install my reducer right on the end of the stack elbow and then the muffler right on to the reducer. Well this wont work since both the muffler and the reducer are 5" ID. The easy think would be to order some band clamps but Im pretty sick of ordering parts for this exhaust. So I decided to do another butt weld between the reducer and muffler. This will make the stack and the muffler all one piece but I couldnt think of any reason that was a problem. Except more money if I decide to have them powdered.

To cut this big diameter tube Ive just been measuring in a few spots and then wrapping masking tape around lining up my marks. Cut off wheel on the grinder and then clean it up with a flap disk.



I did my same trick as I did with the elbows by welding on slugs to one side to help me not burn threw. Wasnt as nervous to weld these up. Didnt turn out much better but after looking at the welds on my new mufflers I dont have anything to be ashamed of



Then the reducers slide on the elbows. I will hang another mounting clamp off the muffler up to the frame rail. Should be plenty stout.





Its a little funky looking but not rediculas. I can live with it. I really doubt these glass packed mufflers will help with sound but at least it will be legal and look like I made an attempt. I may end up putting a chambered muffler in before the y pipe. But I figure I will get this put together and give it a good sound test first before I drop another 200 on this dang exhaust.

So next up will be dropping the right side fuel tank and getting that stack all in place. Then I will start messing with the y pipe and connecting it all together. Im pretty confident it will go together pretty easy.

The flange of the muffler ended up about even with the inside of the frame rail.